not a total loss

Thursday

Jul 19, 2012 at 12:01 AMOct 18, 2012 at 4:19 PM

Sometimes I wonder if I'll truly lose my kids to technology. At any given time, you'll find them tapping away in some sort of off-road race, dragon-slaying, virtual cake baking, listening to tunes or pseudo-texting their friends. This is most apparent during car rides; and when it's going on, it's hard to be heard at all. I sometimes say, "All eyes look into mine in the rear view mirror!" before I speak.

I'm sure I had my own version of attention-kidnapping technology that swept my mind away from the real world at times, although the first I remember was a Sony Walkman I received at 14. I also recall our Gigantor personal computer which was pretty much an MS-DOS prompt with a black screen and flashing cursor. Oh, and there was the VHS player. ("What's that?" Riley and Finn ask, although Logan still remembers.) And my first cell phone came after marriage; a couple of years later, I think!

But that's not the world we live in anymore. As I drove home from some errands yesterday (don't ask me how many times I've been to the Apple store to get assistance with my painfully slow phone - that's another post entirely), I was in dismay over the lack of conversation and the only vision I could catch of all three kids in the mirror: the tops of their heads. On the flip side, I loved that no one was complaining about my Sirius XM The Coffee House radio. (No offense Pit Bull, but a girl can only take so much!)

At a long stoplight, I quickly glanced at Facebook on my phone. "Look at Abby smiling you guys!" I yelled to the zombies in the back seat about a recent photo posted by my sister-in-law. And they responded instantly, with sweet grins and chuckles as they passed the phone around, so obviously in love with their new cousin. See, they're still there, technology or not, I thought. Kids need to veg-out with technology a bit, but want something new and exciting to hear about as much as we do. It's our hard job to keep it all in balance.

Sometimes I wonder if I'll truly lose my kids to technology. At any given time, you'll find them tapping away in some sort of off-road race, dragon-slaying, virtual cake baking, listening to tunes or pseudo-texting their friends. This is most apparent during car rides; and when it's going on, it's hard to be heard at all. I sometimes say, "All eyes look into mine in the rear view mirror!" before I speak.

I'm sure I had my own version of attention-kidnapping technology that swept my mind away from the real world at times, although the first I remember was a Sony Walkman I received at 14. I also recall our Gigantor personal computer which was pretty much an MS-DOS prompt with a black screen and flashing cursor. Oh, and there was the VHS player. ("What's that?" Riley and Finn ask, although Logan still remembers.) And my first cell phone came after marriage; a couple of years later, I think!

But that's not the world we live in anymore. As I drove home from some errands yesterday (don't ask me how many times I've been to the Apple store to get assistance with my painfully slow phone - that's another post entirely), I was in dismay over the lack of conversation and the only vision I could catch of all three kids in the mirror: the tops of their heads. On the flip side, I loved that no one was complaining about my Sirius XM The Coffee House radio. (No offense Pit Bull, but a girl can only take so much!)

At a long stoplight, I quickly glanced at Facebook on my phone. "Look at Abby smiling you guys!" I yelled to the zombies in the back seat about a recent photo posted by my sister-in-law. And they responded instantly, with sweet grins and chuckles as they passed the phone around, so obviously in love with their new cousin. See, they're still there, technology or not, I thought. Kids need to veg-out with technology a bit, but want something new and exciting to hear about as much as we do. It's our hard job to keep it all in balance.